Minimally invasive medical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of tissue that is damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. Such minimally invasive techniques may be performed through natural orifices in a patient anatomy or through one or more surgical incisions. Through these natural orifices or incisions clinicians may insert surgical instruments to reach a target tissue location. To reach the target tissue location, the minimally invasive surgical instruments may navigate natural or surgically created passageways in anatomical systems such as the lungs, the colon, the intestines, the kidneys, the heart, the circulatory system, or the like. Navigational assist systems help the clinician route the surgical instruments and avoid damage to the anatomy. These systems can incorporate the use of shape sensors to more accurately describe the shape, position, orientation, and pose of the surgical instrument in real space or with respect to pre-procedural or concurrent images. The accuracy and precision of these shape sensors may be compromised by many factors including temperature variations, the location of the shape sensor within the instrument, and axial loading on the sensor. Improved systems and methods are needed for increasing the accuracy and precision of navigational assist systems, including minimizing the effects of factors that compromise shape sensor accuracy.